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Ron Conway: Broken Immigration Stifles Our Tech Industry

Mashable is proud to join technology's brightest entrepreneurs in the March For Innovation, a virtual march on Washington that calls for smart, comprehensive immigration reform to attract and keep the best and brightest to fuel innovation and American jobs.

Those of us who work in the technology sector have been calling for smart immigration reform for years. In the past we’ve tried a piecemeal approach, focusing solely on visas for advanced degree foreign-born students in STEM fields because that is the heart and soul of our industry.

Today, I take a different view. I believe our focus was too narrow. Our country needs a comprehensive plan that reforms the entire system of immigration. If the entire system is broken, it makes no sense to fix just one piece while the rest languishes.

That’s why I’m asking you to join me in a virtual March for Innovation. Together, our voices will be heard loudly by our elected representatives in Washington. To participate, just go to MarchforInnovation.com, where you can directly contact your representatives in the U.S. Senate via Twitter or Facebook to let them know you support comprehensive immigration reform.

I believe the growth of the tech industry is vital to the growth of our economy overall. We need to make the necessary changes to our broken immigration system, which currently stifles that growth.

We also need to fix our current legal immigration system — a system that pulls apart families, forces small businesses to close their doors due to a lack of access to a workforce, keeps 11 million undocumented immigrants in the shadows and leaves our borders vulnerable.

For those reasons and more, it’s time we take action. It’s time to get involved for the sake of our families, friends, co-workers, and the greater good of our nation. So please, take a minute and join me, and let’s keep America competitive in the global economy.

Ron Conway is an angel investor in technology startups. He has worked closely with hundreds of companies, including Google, AskJeeves, Square, Facebook, Zappos, AdMob, Pinterest, Airbnb, foursquare and Twitter. He also serves as a board member of the...More

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